Need for Speed Franchise will now Fall Under the Banner of EA Sports

Indeed Electronic Arts has a long history of successful racing games, but the double decade old Need for Speed remains the oldest of them all. If I read between the lines of what EA Studios’ Patrick Soderlund said to Polygon, I can assume they have no plans of letting go off the series any time soon.

In fact, Need for Speed is being taken up by a new set of brains, the EA Sports team Soderlund revealed. This step is being taken presumably because of his belief that NFS needs a change in the viewpoint and EA Sports’ Matt Bilbey could be the right man for the job.

“Matt will run FIFA, he runs UFC, but he also runs NHL (or has people that report up to him),” Soderlund said.

“We’re also putting Need for Speed and our driving business under Matt. We think that could benefit from from fresh eyes, could benefit from some different thinking, and we think that Matt is the right guy to do that. He’s got a very different viewpoint about how to make games and what great games.”

Now the first thought that could go into a gmaer’s mind after reading thing would be, is EA planning to turn NFS into a simulaiton? Well, Soderlund answered that too:

“I find that to be highly unlikely, to be honest,” he said. “It’s more [that], when you’ve had a franchise that’s been going on for 20 years like Need for Speed, I think it was time for us to get a different pair of eyes on it, a fresh look and feel on it. If something can come in and make take it to the next level, take it to a different direction,” he said.

Need for Speed Rivals’ new release date for PlayStation 4 is November 15 which means it will be used as a launch title to fill the gap that DriveClub has created after being shifted down the timeline to 2014.

Do you think the versions of Need for Speed developed by EA Sports will do justice to the franchise?